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New owner, any recommendations?

Hi all, I'm a new owner of a 2015 Model S 90D. I just brought her home last night and she'll be my daily driver. Are there any tips or recommendations you might have in order to keep her at optimal performance?

During the week, I drive about 10 miles per day (5 miles each way to the train) and on the weekends, probably 50-100 miles per day running errands shuttling the children around.

I live in New York so my climate will certainly play into the battery charge.

Hi all, I'm a new owner of a 2015 Model S 90D. I just brought her home last night and she'll be my daily driver. Are there any tips or recommendations you might have in order to keep her at optimal performance?

During the week, I drive about 10 miles per day (5 miles each way to the train) and on the weekends, probably 50-100 miles per day running errands shuttling the children around.

I live in New York so my climate will certainly play into the battery charge.

Any insight would be super helpful!

Thanks,
D

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Congrats on the new car! You will love it.

So I think you will probably get a wide range of responses to your question on this forum. Ultimately it all depends on how you drive, where you drive, and what your needs and preferences are. You don't have to do a damn thing to your car and it will be the best thing you've ever driven.

Personally, I had the windows tinted right away (Texas = hot summers) and then had Xpel wrapped on about 90% of the car to protect the paint. Other people like to get a product like Opticoat applied as an alternative (or in addition to Xpel/Suntek). Personally I would highly recommend both.

But those are totally optional. If you are more on the utilitarian side of things, then the odd ding or scratch over a few years may not matter to you and the above can get pricey. I ordered a tire repair kit from Tesla to keep in the back for some peace of mind. I have a CHAdeMO adapter for my longer trips, but you should research where you will be going and what kinds of charging options are available before investing in that. For me it's a huge benefit and I have access to numerous CHAdeMO stations. All weather floor mats should be here in a week or so.

Keep her plugged in whenever you're at home, charge to 90% for daily driving, don't be an idiot with AutoPilot, stay out of automatic car washes and most importantly, enjoy! There are endless threads on all of the things I mentioned so I won't expand on them here. Have fun!

EDIT - rereading your post and it's location, I kind of overlooked the fact that you put this in the battery & charging section and now realize your question is probably focused on that (battery) specifically. Sorry if I got carried away!

Use the search function (upper righthand part of the page) of the forum to find and read about what strikes your curiosity; feel free to ask questions if you can't find the answer. This rabbit hole goes pretty deep.

So I think you will probably get a wide range of responses to your question on this forum. Ultimately it all depends on how you drive, where you drive, and what your needs and preferences are. You don't have to do a damn thing to your car and it will be the best thing you've ever driven.

Personally, I had the windows tinted right away (Texas = hot summers) and then had Xpel wrapped on about 90% of the car to protect the paint. Other people like to get a product like Opticoat applied as an alternative (or in addition to Xpel/Suntek). Personally I would highly recommend both.

But those are totally optional. If you are more on the utilitarian side of things, then the odd ding or scratch over a few years may not matter to you and the above can get pricey. I ordered a tire repair kit from Tesla to keep in the back for some peace of mind. I have a CHAdeMO adapter for my longer trips, but you should research where you will be going and what kinds of charging options are available before investing in that. For me it's a huge benefit and I have access to numerous CHAdeMO stations. All weather floor mats should be here in a week or so.

Keep her plugged in whenever you're at home, charge to 90% for daily driving, don't be an idiot with AutoPilot, stay out of automatic car washes and most importantly, enjoy! There are endless threads on all of the things I mentioned so I won't expand on them here. Have fun!

EDIT - rereading your post and it's location, I kind of overlooked the fact that you put this in the battery & charging section and now realize your question is probably focused on that (battery) specifically. Sorry if I got carried away!

One of the first things I did was decide what paint protection I wanted to do, if any, since it's not terribly feasible to protect paint that's already weathered or damaged. From protective clearcoat-type coatings to clear plastic films, there are a variety of ways to protect the MS's fragile paint.

Additionally, many of us have installed dash cams to help protect our interests in the event of a hit and run, vandalism, or an accident where fault may be in dispute. There's no shortage of threads on this subject, either.

Perhaps sign up with Plugshare for the occasional need you might have charging outside of home or the Supercharger network.

Are there any additional adapters you might need for charging at family members' homes? We have a 14-30 to 14-50 adapter that we use when charging from the clothes dryer outlet a the in-laws, for example. They're a common destination and the 30-amp circuit is sometimes necessary, depending upon how much driving we do while visiting them.

Music: Many use low-profile USB memory sticks to store their favorite music. I used to use an SSD drive in a bus-powered enclosure for the greater capacity, but we got tired of dealing with the drive laying in the console, so we switched for a USB stick that's nearly invisible, albeit it half the capacity.

Hi all, I'm a new owner of a 2015 Model S 90D. I just brought her home last night and she'll be my daily driver. Are there any tips or recommendations you might have in order to keep her at optimal performance?

During the week, I drive about 10 miles per day (5 miles each way to the train) and on the weekends, probably 50-100 miles per day running errands shuttling the children around.

I live in New York so my climate will certainly play into the battery charge.

Any insight would be super helpful!

Thanks,
D

Click to expand...

#1 Paint protection! I got the full wrap and haven't regretted it for a moment. I took mine straight to the shop from the dealer to avoid any possibility of chips.

Get clear bra over the bumper, hood, fenders, mirrors. Then get the center console, and a couple popular charging adapters just in case. A set of snow tires wouldn't hurt either, your option to get 2nd set of rims or just swap shoes twice a year.

Oh yeah, I forgot about my center console which I'm having installed next Monday. haha.

Tesla is delivering a loaner to my house in the morning when I leave for work and will bring my car back to me at my office or home when it's done later in the day! And this, for a 100% optional upgrade! My service center does have a 20mi "valet service" radius which I fall in so that's pretty awesome.

Congratulations on your new ride. I should be picking up my Silver 90D on Fri. Is the paint in the Tesla so easily chipped compared to other cars? I am thinking of putting Xpel on the Front, mirrors, doors and rear bumper. I live in souhern California. Am wondering if I need to consider a full body coverage?

Congratulations on your new ride. I should be picking up my Silver 90D on Fri. Is the paint in the Tesla so easily chipped compared to other cars? I am thinking of putting Xpel on the Front, mirrors, doors and rear bumper. I live in souhern California. Am wondering if I need to consider a full body coverage?

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I don't know about the paint compared to other cars, but I have the front nose and mirrors covered. I wish I had the whole front hood since it's a low car and will get plenty of rocks thrown up on it. I've got several chip marks above the protected area...but then again I also have 81K miles...the more miles the more wear obviously.

I agree with all the above comments. They're great. I did not go with a wrap because it simply wasn't in the cards after dropping so much coin. But I live in CA: a driver's and detailer's heaven. However, living in NY, I would really recommend it. It will pay off in spades. I did CQuartz Finest nano coat and after over a year, the car looks better than the day she was delivered.

-I got the center console. Pricey, but so handy. I use it every day and now have no clutter in the car.
-I also got a dash and rear cam for the reasons noted above.
-If you have 21" wheels, you may want to consider different tires when yours wear out. And 19" winter wheels and tires for snow. I went through my Michi's in only 9K mi. Ridiculous. I now run Hankooks and will try Conti silents next. Invest in a highly accurate tire gauge if you have 21's. They are very sensitive to pressure changes.
-I also bought the Tesla tire inflator kit for the small tread punctures, but bought a jack and tire plug kit for the bigger ones. Having no spare could be a real issue if you get flat that the Tesla kit can't seal.
-Again on 21's, invest in some Wheel Bands or Alloygators to protect against curb rash. I use the Alloygators and they have saved my wheels from major damage at least five times. Worth every penny and I think they look cool.
-I got the sunscreens for my pano and rear and they really make a big difference in the hot sun of summer.
-Get a radar detector. You'll need it!
-And of course, you must get some Tesla swag, just for fun. They gave me a jacket and the lunch box when I bought it. Then I got the Tesla key fob cover and the wallet just for fun. They are really nice. Very well made. Oh, and I bought the lamb's wool blanket just for sh-ts and giggles. But it has come in handy when I go and hang out in the car to listen to music and ogle over my girl on a chilly night. Why not?

Congratulations on your new ride. I should be picking up my Silver 90D on Fri. Is the paint in the Tesla so easily chipped compared to other cars? I am thinking of putting Xpel on the Front, mirrors, doors and rear bumper. I live in souhern California. Am wondering if I need to consider a full body coverage?

I haven’t seen anyone mention this handy tip yet, and many new owners don’t know this about how Superchargers are set up.

When you get to a Supercharger, you may see something like 8 stalls, and they will be labeled: 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc. The ones with the same number are connected to one stack of the 120kW charging hardware, and it will split/share the power between the A and B stalls—first car gets priority. That’s what people mean if you hear “paired stalls”. So if you arrive and there is a car on 2A, and it may be pulling 90kW, you can only get the leftover 30kW from 2B. So if there is a set of 3A and 3B that are both open, get on one of those because they won’t be limited by sharing with another car. The sharing is not too terrible, though, as it will automatically shift more power to the second car as the first car gets more full and starts to reduce its power draw. A lot of people don’t know this and are confused and frustrated when they’re getting a shared one and it’s not delivering the charging rate they expect.

Some useful sites:

For trip planning, to see how much energy a route will take, this site is the most amazing thing before or since sliced bread. You can enter a lot of variables, like what your car type is, how much weight you’re carrying, driving speed, and the inside and outside temperatures to estimate heat or A/C use. It takes into account those factors plus the elevation changes of the route and will show how many rated miles of the Tesla range will be used for driving that route. It’s amazing, and most Tesla drivers use it pretty often. It’s maintained by a college kid, so if you use it, it would be really nice of you to make a donation to his college fund that he has listed on the site.www.evtripplanner.com

Someone mentioned this. Plugshare is about the best and most complete map of charging locations. You can filter the display by what charger or outlet types you’re looking for.www.plugshare.com

Tesla’s map of Superchargers only shows the ones that are complete. There is a wonderful user-maintained map where people add locations where building permits or construction has been found of Superchargers that are not live yet. This is pretty cool to see ones that are in progress and should be coming up in the next few months. Timelines are really variable, though.www.supercharge.info

If you need adapters for any odd outlet types,www.evseadapters.com
They have a lot of different ones for various types of plugs that convert to a 14-50 outlet, which is the type of plug that your Model S comes with on its mobile charging cable. *Notice* If you use any of these that are for lower power circuits, you MUST manually dial down the current in the car, so you don’t draw too much current and flip a breaker or start a fire. The rule is 80% of what the circuit rating is. The standard 14-50 comes with the car. It’s a 50A rated circuit, so the car draws 40A. If you use an adapter to a 10-30 or 14-30 (old and new clothes dryer outlets) those are 30A circuits, so you need to use 24A maximum.

If you’re going off the beaten path, away from Superchargers, one of the best charging resources that may not be listed on Plugshare yet are campgrounds and RV parks that have the 14-50 outlets, which is the one that comes with your charge cable. This site lists campgrounds, and you can filter by ones that include “50 Amp”, which is what they call that type of outlet.www.allstays.com

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